Many viewers record television programs for playback at a more convenient time. This practice is commonly-known as "time-shifting". Unfortunately, many people nowadays have little free time in their hectic schedules to spend watching these tapes. Consequently, a sizable stack of tapes containing such time-shifted recordings can accrue before the viewer plays them. In the best of all possible worlds, the viewer would have labelled the outside of each tape with the title and date of the recorded television program. In actual practice, however, there is little chance that one is so organized. Consequently, a viewer may have accumulated three or four tapes, each containing an episode of a favorite show and, in the absence of neatly labeled tapes, the viewer must then play a portion of each tape to see if it is the desired episode.
Many camcorders include electronic titling circuitry including a keyboard for adding a text screen overlay to the image being recorded, so that the user can record a title along with the video. However, given the fact that many viewers do not even label their tapes, it is highly unlikely that a viewer would use such a time-consuming and tedious feature to title each tape electronically. Moreover, electronic titling by use of a keyboard is contrary to the current trend in the industry of making the recording of a television program a quick and easy procedure